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Player Interview   Table of Contents   Tournaments

It has been a month now since the ranking system has been implemented. Questions about why it was I created it are fading as many know why, but not everyone knows the reasons behind the motivation of why it was created, or how it works. Like anything else, there wasn't just one factor that lead to this system being designed.

Conquer Club, a popular site amongst TTA members, was where I got the initial idea for TTA's ranking system. For those of you who aren't familiar with Conquer Club, it is a website where you can play online Risk. Conquer Club has a similar ranking system to TTA, where their ranks are based on army ranks - Private, Lieutenant, General, etc. Points are won and lost each game depending on the result of the game, your rank, and your opponent's rank. This is the basic design for TTA's ranking system. The main idea behind this is that you will gain more for beating higher ranked players, who should be players of higher skill, since, for the most part, it takes a great deal of skill and games played to achieve higher ranks. As you go through the ranks you also gain less for winning and lose more for losing, making it even more difficult to advance. There will always be players who go through the ranks quickly due to playing the same rulesets constantly, this is something that will not be controlled, as it is impractical and unrealistic.

You now know how the system works, which leaves the why. Well, the main reason is simple. It has been long argued that the "Most Wins" and "Highest Win Percentage"(which doesn't exist anymore) leader boards are not a true testament to the skill of the player. While that is a debate in itself, I won't touch that subject in this article. But, I feel as though the ranking system is a better judgement of the skill of a player. It will never be completely accurate due to the fundamentals of the system being dependent on how often you play, it is the most accurate system that could be devised for the active players in the community. Players always compare themselves to others. Where do I stand compared to Delial? Seto? Mette? Common questions that can be looked at on another scale now.

After I came up with the ranking system, many people asked me why I created it, which sparked some ideas that I hadn't really thought about. Players like myself who have been around for 5 years have seen it all on TTA. We've played in all the tournaments, done the card collecting, and playing for fun can only be so much fun after so many games in a day after a five year span. So, what else is there to offer? A lot of people like myself stick around for the community and for a clan they're in. As far as playing the game, though, tournaments are where it lies, and the occasional game here and there. It now seems the ranking system, depending on how much people like it, can be a new motivation for people to play. Activity certainly seems higher than recent. And, coming from a personal standpoint, I play a lot more these days than I have in the past year or two. Certainly this system isn't going to drastically change TTA's activity, nothing individually can. But, it is nice to see things have an impact on the site, and to give something else for people to strive for. Other things such as Quest have had a huge impact on TTA's activity. TTA has done a very good job of keeping a nine year old game fun and fresh, which plays a huge factor in keeping the site's players active.